diff --git a/examples/playbooks/tags.yml b/examples/playbooks/tags.yml
index 82eaa83333f..95725bc259c 100644
--- a/examples/playbooks/tags.yml
+++ b/examples/playbooks/tags.yml
@@ -3,27 +3,27 @@
 #
 # assume: ansible-playbook tags.yml --tags foo
 #
-# only tags with the given tags will be run when --tags is specified
+# try this with:
+#    --tags foo
+#    --tags bar
 #
-# (an include statement will also be able to set tags on all included
-# tasks at some point in the future)
+# note the include syntax to tag all tasks included below
+# it is a short hand over adding "tag:" to each task entry
 
-
-- name: example play
+- name: example play one
   hosts: all
   user: root
   tasks:
   - name: hi
     tags: foo
-    action: shell echo "first play ran"
+    action: shell echo "first task ran"
 
-- name: example play
+- name: example play two
   hosts: all
   user: root
   tasks:
   - name: hi
     tags: bar
-    action: shell echo "second play ran"
-
-
+    action: shell echo "second task ran"
+  - include: tasks/base.yml tags=base
 
diff --git a/lib/ansible/playbook/__init__.py b/lib/ansible/playbook/__init__.py
index 0c1c9ec924e..16d4a663d40 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/playbook/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/playbook/__init__.py
@@ -282,6 +282,9 @@ class PlayBook(object):
     def _run_play(self, play):
         ''' run a list of tasks for a given pattern, in order '''
 
+        if not play.should_run(self.only_tags):
+            return
+
         self.callbacks.on_play_start(play.name)
 
         # push any variables down to the system # and get facts/ohai/other data back up
diff --git a/lib/ansible/playbook/play.py b/lib/ansible/playbook/play.py
index 3acc76945cc..a25872a30d5 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/playbook/play.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/playbook/play.py
@@ -79,6 +79,7 @@ class Play(object):
             task_vars = self.vars.copy()
             if 'include' in x:
                 tokens = shlex.split(x['include'])
+
                 for t in tokens[1:]:
                     (k,v) = t.split("=", 1)
                     task_vars[k]=v
@@ -151,6 +152,16 @@ class Play(object):
 
     # *************************************************
 
+    def should_run(self, tags):
+        ''' does the play match any of the tags? '''
+        for task in self._tasks:
+            for task_tag in task.tags:
+                if task_tag in tags:
+                    return True
+        return False                    
+
+    # *************************************************
+
     def _update_vars_files_for_host(self, host):
 
         if not host in self.playbook.SETUP_CACHE:
diff --git a/lib/ansible/playbook/task.py b/lib/ansible/playbook/task.py
index c65de2235cf..6441ec29427 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/playbook/task.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/playbook/task.py
@@ -62,6 +62,9 @@ class Task(object):
         if len(tokens) > 1:
             self.module_args = tokens[1]
 
+        import_tags = []
+        if 'tags' in self.module_vars:
+            import_tags = self.module_vars['tags'].split(",")
 
         self.name = utils.template(self.name, self.module_vars)
         self.action = utils.template(self.name, self.module_vars)
@@ -78,7 +81,7 @@ class Task(object):
                 self.tags.append(apply_tags)
             elif type(apply_tags) == list:
                 self.tags.extend(apply_tags)
-
+        self.tags.extend(import_tags)